AWS Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)
AWS Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) is a fully managed load balancing service that automatically distributes incoming application traffic across multiple targets, such as Amazon EC2 instances, containers, and IP addresses. It helps improve the availability and fault tolerance of applications by ensuring that no single instance bears too much load.
Why Choose AWS ELB?
- High Availability: ELB enhances application availability by routing traffic to healthy instances, automatically rerouting requests when instances become unhealthy.
- Scalability: The service scales automatically with incoming traffic, adjusting capacity to accommodate fluctuating loads without manual intervention.
- Integration with AWS: ELB integrates seamlessly with other AWS services (e.g., EC2, Auto Scaling, Route 53), providing a comprehensive solution for application deployment and management.
- Support for Multiple Protocols: ELB supports various protocols (HTTP, HTTPS, TCP, and WebSocket), making it suitable for diverse application architectures.
Configuration Tips:
- Load Balancer Types: Choose the appropriate ELB type based on your application needs: Application Load Balancer (ALB) for HTTP/HTTPS traffic, Network Load Balancer (NLB) for TCP traffic, or Classic Load Balancer for existing applications.
- Health Checks: Configure health checks to monitor the health of registered targets, ensuring that traffic is only routed to healthy instances.
- Auto Scaling: Integrate ELB with Auto Scaling groups to automatically adjust the number of instances based on traffic patterns, improving resource utilization and cost-efficiency.
- Security Groups: Set up security groups to control inbound and outbound traffic to your load balancer and registered targets, enhancing application security.
Example Applications:
- Web Applications: Use ELB to distribute incoming web traffic across multiple EC2 instances, ensuring high availability and responsiveness for user requests.
- Microservices: Implement ELB to manage traffic between microservices, providing load balancing and routing capabilities that enhance service performance.
- API Gateways: Leverage ELB as an API gateway to route and balance requests for various backend services, improving scalability and reliability.